Translator Steve Komarnyckyj describes the triumph of modestly published book of Ukrainian poetry on the global stage and what it says about the world.

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In July 2011 I sat in the center of Lviv, Ukraine with Ihor Pavlyuk and raised a tumbler of vodka to the success of my translations of his poetry. The book won a PEN promotes award in 2013 and was subsequently voted the reader’s favorite on the PEN World Bookshelf in late 2015. This was a triumph as unlikely as Sancho Panza’s Donkey winning the Indianapolis 500. It has become commonplace to note that poetry books hardly sell in the US and the UK. Translated literature only accounts for three percent of all books published in the US. So the title was a rank outsider in the reader’s poll to select the favorite on the PEN World Bookshelf.

... If you look at the Penguin Classics range you will see that Ukraine is effectively erased from the literary map.